I talked to my dad the other night for Mother’s Day. He had dinner that weekend with a professor from LeTourneau University. My dad, ever the burgenoning educrat, asked one of his favorite questions: “how can you prepare your kid to succeed in college?” The professor’s answer was to focus on two things: science and reading. Additionally, he said, you should homeschool.

They did a survey last year that measured the relationship between the need for remedial math & english, and the type of high school attended. The rough numbers were: 60% of public school students required remedial courses, 30% of private school students, and 4% of home school students.

Ted Leung and his wife Julie are the two home school advocate on my blog radar. Ted even draws similarities between open source and homeschooling. Interesting. I confess that I do indeed have designs to teach my kids Squeak or Logo when the reach “a certain age of maturity”, to quote Issac Hayes.

[Update: spelling & grammar. Doh. Thanks, wife.]

May 31st, 2005 | Homeschool | No comments

Step 1: Get in happy-fun good ship SS Schmitterling and circle around the entirety of Lookout Mountain while enjoying first vacation with wife. Also do some sweet jumps and get like two feet of air.
Step 2: Go to the Over the Rhine show in Nashville on Sunday night.
Step 3: Profit!!!

Addendum: The optional Step 4 is to check out my linkblog for all the cool stuff we have/will found/find.

Additional Addendum: Our plan, which I had mapped out before Josiah’s nice trip but which am undoubtedly doubly enthused thereby, is to drive down 193-ish, swing around in Gasdsen, and then crawl back up north towards civilization on 11-ish. I use -ish because I will undoubtedly be distracted by intriguingly-named side roads, cemeteries, waterfalls, and the odd piece of tin foil on the side of the road. If you know of any of the above that we should stop at, let me know. I might even take pictures. Yessssss.

Further Addendum, Which Perhaps Destroys Any Existing Pretense of the Declared Format of This Post: If you’d like to see Elissa or I’s pretty face before we leave town, we’re hanging out at the Stone Lion at 5:45 for a happy-hour-empowered pitcher. Come join.

May 27th, 2005 | Lookout | 4 comments